Members of Congress: If you're serious about creating jobs, take a trip to Waterbury, Conn., and get a chocolate pedicure at Sundae Spa.

Not your thing?

Then check out the new software being developed by Weston Software.

Both Sundae Spa and Weston Software are creating new jobs now — with the potential to create hundreds of jobs — and they're doing it thanks to the help from Connecticut's Small Business Development Centers, one of nearly 1,000 around the country.

Take a look at the difference these centers make in just one small state.

"We work with over 400 businesses doing direct consulting for more than five hours a year, and another 700 to 800 small businesses who consult with us, and a few thousand who attend workshops," according to Ginne-Rae Clay, Connecticut state director.

As a result, just in Connecticut, the federal Small Business Administration's Small Business Development Centers help create or save about 1,500 jobs a year.

They do this for a measly cost of just more than $2 million, only half of which comes from the federal government. The businesses they counsel generate about $8 million to $10 million in sales taxes alone, netting a hefty profit for the people of Connecticut and America.

Studies show these centers bring in about $9 for every $1 spent.

Take a look at just two businesses the Connecticut Small Business Development Center network helped launch this year:

Sundae Spa, Waterbury

When Kimberly Swan became ill, she had to leave her job as a high school science teacher.

Driving one of her seven daughters to a party where the girls were getting "chocolate pedicures," Swan got her inspiration — a spa for teens and 'tweens where they would create their own beauty products, have parties and fun, and oh, yes, learn about science.

But an idea isn't a business.

Swan needed help. Fortunately, she was paired with counselor Charlotte Cilley at the Western Connecticut State University Small Business Development Center in Danbury.

"Charlotte asked me some really hard questions," Swan said. "She helped me come up with a business plan and a financial plan." For three years, Cilley and the Connecticut center worked with Swan, so she was ready when she went looking for investors.

She was prepared and got her financing.

"We opened two weeks ago, we had 60 parties booked, and it was just phenomenal," Swan said. They've already hired 12 part-time employees, had investors from New York approach her about franchising and have 10 people waiting to discuss potential franchises.

It may become a nationwide company.

"Had I opened three years ago," Swan said, before she worked with the Cilley and the Small Business Development Center, "I would have made a lot of mistakes and wasted a lot of money."

Weston Software, Westport

Hank Voight was a software security architect for Microsoft when a start-up company recruited him.

Working for a start-up is typically a round-the-clock commitment, and one day, stuck with an eight-hour delay at an airport, Voight realized he would rather be working that hard for himself.

He'd had an idea for a new kind of software, a management console that would enable system administrators to manage all their computers — PCs, Macs, Unix — with one interface, and he knew such software would have a big market.

Voight started writing code in his basement, and then he did something really smart — he reached out to the Connecticut Small Business Development Center, where he worked with counselor Kenneth Kollmeyer.

"Ken helped guide me and nurture me from an idea into my current business," Voight said. "I was amazed at the resources that were free. They gave me great help developing my business plan and fine tuning it to go after the investment community."

Voight just raised $500,000, has hired six full-time and three part-time employees, and projects employing 50 to 100 employees in the next two to three years.

Day in and day out, all over America, counselors like Cilley and Kollmeyer help small businesses succeed.

There's almost certainly a Small Business Development Center in your town — find out here— and the help is free.

So Congress members, take a drive to Connecticut or to the Small Business Development Center in your home town, and see what really works for creating jobs.

Then get out your checkbooks, and increase financing for the development-center network.

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